Sarasota fishing report Capt Jim klopfer 4/4/2015
Capt. Jim Klopfer
April 4, 2015
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
This week was a tale of two tactics. I did a lot of bottom and structure fishing early in the week as a severe front had the water churned up pretty good. Action was excellent! Sheepshead were plentiful, with several pushing 4 pounds, along with gag grouper, mangrove snapper, and Key West grunts hitting, live and dead shrimp on the bottom. Later in the week the water cleared and I focused on the deep grass flats and the fishing was equally good, particularly early in the morning. Clients landed speckled trout to 20", Spanish mackerel to 3 pounds, sharks, bluefish, jack crevelle, flounder, ladyfish and other species casting Bass Assassin jigs and live shrimp. The inshore Gulf of Mexico is providing decent action on Spanish mackerel, bluefish, and jacks while further offshore the kingfish bite has been hot.
Charters on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were all very similar. The Chambers family from Chicago, Nate Arnold and his son, and Dean Genthe and his family from Wisconsin all experienced fast action fishing docks ledges, and other structure in and near Big Pass. Likewise, the bite was slow once we moved to the flats, with just a few ladyfish and trout hitting jigs and shrimp.
On Wednesday I changed gears with Siesta Key resident Carl Guse and his son-in-law John, who was visiting from Chicago. He ran up the east side of Sarasota Bay and did well, catching speckled trout to 19", Spanish mackerel, ladyfish, jacks, and more on live shrimp and Bass Assassin jigs.
We did even better on Thursday morning, As I took out Longboat Key resident Jim Mitchell's, son Todd Bruce, his girlfriend Nikki Higley, and grand daughters Ruby (12) and Hazel (9). Action was very steady, with the girls catching speckled trout, bluefish, ladyfish, and jacks on live shrimp. Todd chipped in with sharks, big sailcats, trout, ladyfish, and Spanish mackerel casting a Glow/chartreuse Gulp! Shrimp on a jig head. After a couple of hours, we dropped the younger ladies off and picked up Jim. It was slick calm, so we ran out into the Gulf of Mexico and caught Spanish mackerel, bluefish, blue runners, and flounder at the Roehr reef using live shrimp and threadfin herring.
Mary O'Brien treated her son Kevin and brother Pat Cosgrove to a charter on Friday. Once again, action was steady on a variety of species, including Spanish mackerel, speckled trout, jacks, sharks, and ladyfish. Free lined live shrimp, Bass Assassin jigs, and trolled Rapala X-Raps produced the fish, Middlegrounds and Stephen's Pt. were the top spots.
Action was very good on Saturday morning for Bill Mareen from upstate New York and his friends Gary and Dave. We got an early start and were on station by first light. For 2 1/2 hours, the bite was steady with speckled trout (many of which were above average in size) to 20", 8 or 10 Spanish mackerel, loads of ladyfish, jacks, and big sailcats. Bill caught all of his fish on a Gulp! Shrimp while Dave and Gary did their damage using live shrimp. We finished up with a few more trout and ladyfish at the Radio Tower.
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